Letters: NRA and schools

Lastly, a while ago there were two gunmen terrorizing the highways and gas stations around Washington. So to give credit to the NRA idea we might as well have armed checkpoints on our highways since it obviously works in Baghdad and every gas station attendant should shoulder a pistol. Gotta give the “good ol’ boys” at the NRA some pats on the back. Their idea just ended gun violence in most of America while stimulating the (gun shop) economy and bringing our unemployment rate to zero. – Jim Schaefer, Linda Vista

So the NRA says that we should put an armed police officer in every school. That seems like a reasonable solution, so long as the gun owners are willing to bear the cost of doing so.

According to the U.S. Department of Education there are about 143,450 public and private schools in the United States. The average wage of a police officer is $56,260 according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. You would also need to add to the average wage the average cost burden to the employer for taxes and benefits, which across the country is about 29 percent. So the actual cost for would be about $71,000 per officer.

While there is no exact data on the number of gun owners in the U.S., the University of Chicago’s General Social Survey estimates about 35 percent of all U.S. households have at least one gun. According to the U.S. Census Bureau there are 132,312,404 households in the U.S. Therefore, there are about 46,309,341 gun owners in the U.S.

If these people wish to have the right to own whatever guns they want, in order to prevent further incidents such as the Newtown shooting, each gun owner should have to pay for the privilege. The cost of placing a police officer in every school would be $10,184,950,000 per year. For the privilege of owning a gun each gun owner should have to pay their share of the annual cost of placing a police officer in every school, or about $220 per year. We can add this sum to their taxes. It is certainly does not seem fair to charge those who do not own guns for the right of those who do. – Stephen F. Lopez, San Diego

The NRA’s response to the horrific tragedy in Newtown, Conn., firmly places them in “fringe group“ category. While most Americans support a ban on assault weapons, they call for more weapons.

Our elected officials must unite to tell the NRA “ENOUGH.” They must resist the NRA’s threats to their positions and act in the interest of a civilized society. No one wants to ban hunting weapons; rather; we must eliminate access to assault weapons to all but military and law enforcement personnel. To see that this works, one needs look no further than Australia, where no mass shootings have occurred since such a ban was passed in 1996.

Merely banning weapons is not enough. We need to better identify and help the ill among us. Is a national registry of mentally ill, which the NRA proposes, a reasonable feature? How would this be updated and monitored? How do we avoid stigmatizing those who already suffer ignorance-based prejudice? Gun buying background checks must go from inconsistent to mandatory and include investigation beyond the buyer to include anyone else (family, roommates, etc.) who might access a weapon.

There is no one solution to gun violence. So, we must do everything possible to address the carnage that has become a fixture of daily life. The first step is to say “NO MORE ASSAULT WEAPONS.” – Benjamin Chayes, Enfield, Conn.